4 Reflection

This segment will highlight my experiences that inspired me to pick the Trent Fleming nursing program and my journey in my first semester as a first year nursing student. This chapter will also explore my learnings about real life nursing situations from my very own professors and how I will apply it in my future career of being a nurse.

Ever since I was a child, I always knew that I wanted to have a career in the medical field. I grew looking up to my mom, who’s a registered nurse, that sparked so much joy every time she would tell me about her work experiences. Coming to a more mature age 3 summers ago, I decided that I want to follow my mom’s foot steps and be a registered nurse. I started learning about Trent-Fleming’s nursing program last year at a university fair in Toronto and I remember being so pleased to learn that student-clinical start in first year, that’s because I strongly believe that experience is the greatest teacher and also because I am a visual learner. Now I am 18 years old and young me would not believe that I am actually starting to make my journey to be a nurse.

Academically speaking, the first semester of being an undergraduate nursing student has been an emotional and bittersweet rollercoaster. As I began my nursing journey as a student, I was both excited and overwhelmed to start this new chapter of my life. However, as I continued to show up in lectures and seminars, I felt myself slowly getting comfortable with the uncomfortable. I say this because I am not a big fan of public speaking, in spite of that, I had to put my fears aside in order to earn my participation points, and this is when I started noticing that I grew and matured as a person. Having said that, I used to be so disappointed at student housing or the university really for placing me in a residence that is off campus, little did I know it was a blessing in disguise. As a result, I ended up finding and connecting with my floor mates and they are now a major reason why my overall well-being is great. In other words, I found my “home away from home” support system and this is so important because being a new individual in a new environment can truly take a toll on people’s mental and well-being. Therefore I am lucky enough to be part of a community where I know I am being supported and cared for, especially since I am just starting out.

Moving on to my learnings from my professors and seminar leaders, I can insist that I learned a lot. The stories and advices they shared are widely based on positive, neutral, and negative nurse-to-patient interactions they had and what they learnt from it — on which I think serves a good reminder to us that are starting out that no matter how good or mature you are in terms of nursing seniority, there will always be a new experience that is uncomfortable and that is completely okay . The story that stuck with me the most was Professor Jaime’s saddening experience about her time working in the NICU department because she had to do her duty to tell the baby’s family the illness narrative despite knowing that the baby is not progressing well and is showing signs of decline in health status. I am mentioning this because it taught me that no matter how hard the situation is, nurses must remain resilient at any cost to provide the appropriate care for the patient and their families. Based on research, illness narratives allows patients to receive person-centered care by allowing nurses to understand their patient’s personal resources, values, and beliefs (Bennett et al., 2020).  Although I am a soft-hearted person, remembering this life lesson will help me align my responsibility and duties as a nurse and separate my personal feelings from what I have to do in terms of doing my job correctly as a nurse.

Another lesson I want to point out is when my seminar leader showed us a video about nursing care in a hospital setting where healthcare professionals worked together to give two elderly people their most memorable moment since it was their last chance seeing each other due to a terminal condition they both have. This taught me that compassion is a crucial quality to have in healthcare and especially as a nurse because it makes patients feel more comfortable despite dealing with pain, illness, emotional and mental stress (Importance of Compassion in Nursing | AMN Healthcare, 2022). Therefore, considering their experiences in mind, it is with no doubt that it will help me become a better nurse in the future because whenever I find myself in challenging situations, I have them as my reminder that I can overcome anything if I put my mind and skills into it.